Inside the last Blockbuster store in existence

[jbloggs]

For nostalgia, I just wanted to mention that there is now only ONE Blockbuster store in existence in Bend, OR. There were three but the two in Alaska closed in July leaving just one. Check out the following...

http://video.foxnews.com/v/video-emb...=5822946550001

I hope they can manage to keep it going

[L.J.]

Can remember spending some time in the one here. Last couple of years it was open they had some terrible customer service.

[Seymour]

That's funny. I was an assistant manager at one like 20 years ago.

[Al_The_Strange]

Never had a chance to visit these stores all that often, but I was there when the Blockbuster in Draper, UT closed. Massive sales went on and I walked out with a lot of cheap movies.

[Doctor Jack]

I loved Blockbuster. Introduced me to so many movies. Sad they closed, however when they did and they sold all their used blurays for $1, I absolutely cleaned up. Bought over 100. It was easily the best haul and deal I have ever had with blurays.

[Riddler The Slag]

Was asst. manager of one in the late 90's. Some of my favorite memories were working there.

Messed with a uber religious lady once who was bring mean. Put Boogie Nights in the VHS case instead of Herbie Goes Bananas.

[CrowKiller]

Never was big on Blockbuster in the VHS days, at least as much as the mom and pop places, or somewhere like Video Update. The other places had more movies I enjoyed, like more obscure horror. I was in BB more for game rentals when I was younger. Before I was allowed to binge on horror.

[Kevinicus]

So many DVDs...

[8traxrule]

Anyone nostalgic for Blockbuster is obviously too young to remember the REAL (mom n pop) video stores that were around before they came along. Blockbuster essentially dumbed down the home video market, and of course their policy on NC-17 rated movies has been the reason why not many movies are released with that rating. I don't miss them at all. (BTW why would anyone need to rent Terminator 2 when you can BUY the Blu-Ray at Target for $5?)

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by 8traxrule

(BTW why would anyone need to rent Terminator 2 when you can BUY the Blu-Ray at Target for $5?)

Because physical media wasn't cheap back in the early 2000s. Besides, what if you simply don't feel the need to own movies? I know plenty of people who will watch a movie once and be done with it.

[MikeScott]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...st-blockbuster

I would absolutely watch this documentary. I really miss video stores. Worked at a Movie Gallery from 2006-2010 and a different video store from 2014-2017. Best jobs ever.

[philzilla]

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

Because physical media wasn't cheap back in the early 2000s.

not true

Originally Posted by InuYashaCrusade

what if you simply don't feel the need to own movies? I know plenty of people who will watch a movie once and be done with it.

true

[Region_unlocked]

Anyone remember Blockbuster's 4 pre-owned DVDs for $20 deal? Nowadays you couldn't give me anything in Blockbuster case (or DVDs for that matter), but that was a hell of a deal back in 2005.

[Pondosinatra]

Used to work for the competition - Jumbo Video - back in the day. For some inexplicable reason they were open 24hrs and I did the night shift.

You'd get some really strange people coming in after midnight...

[RCRochester]

Originally Posted by 8traxrule

Anyone nostalgic for Blockbuster is obviously too young to remember the REAL (mom n pop) video stores that were around before they came along. Blockbuster essentially dumbed down the home video market, and of course their policy on NC-17 rated movies has been the reason why not many movies are released with that rating. I don't miss them at all. (BTW why would anyone need to rent Terminator 2 when you can BUY the Blu-Ray at Target for $5?)

Blockbuster was the worst. Back in the late 80s-early 90s I used to rent from a Canadian indy store called Mega Movies. To say they carried every VHS release in existence was no exaggeration, they had thousands of movies and every now and then they'd have a 7/7/7 promo which meant you could rent 7 movies for 7 days for $7. Eventually Blockbuster and its Canadian clone Rogers Video killed off the indy stores with their bland selection which focused on mainstream new releases.

Originally Posted by Pondosinatra

Used to work for the competition - Jumbo Video - back in the day. For some inexplicable reason they were open 24hrs and I did the night shift.

You'd get some really strange people coming in after midnight...

I remember Jumbo Video. They would always give out free popcorn in-store and the place would always stink like stale popcorn.

I used to work the night shift at 24-Hour Video, which was a chain in Vancouver. On weekends it would be busy up until about 11:00 or so with normal renters, then at about 2 am when the bars closed we'd get a non-stop parade of sad, lonely guys renting porn. We'd make four times as much money renting porn during that shift than the regular stuff. I used to love laughing at the guys who'd casually pretend they were browsing in the drama section which was right outside the porn room, then when they saw the coast was clear, quickly slink into the porn room thinking no one would see them.

[DenOfEarth]

Wow, the last blockbuster store in existence? how nice you know.

Those places bring back childhood/teenhood memories even other stores in Boulder City and Vegas.

[Mystic]

Rented a lot of movies on VHS from Blockbuster Video in the late 1980s into the the mid-1990s. I have a lot of memories and saw a lot of movies I wouldn't have seen otherwise. It was a shame to see the demise of Blockbuster and the small video stores. Had a lot of good times perusing the isles of these stores looking for movies.

[InuYashaCrusade]

Originally Posted by MikeScott

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects...st-blockbuster

I would absolutely watch this documentary. I really miss video stores. Worked at a Movie Gallery from 2006-2010 and a different video store from 2014-2017. Best jobs ever.

I had to go ahead and back this. I was sold on the $25 pledge after seeing it came with a valid membership card, then I saw $35 and that it comes with a Blu-ray copy. I'd support this ten times over, seems likely that the goal will be reached.

[meremortal]

Originally Posted by Region_unlocked

Anyone remember Blockbuster's 4 pre-owned DVDs for $20 deal? Nowadays you couldn't give me anything in Blockbuster case (or DVDs for that matter), but that was a hell of a deal back in 2005.

Yep. It was a great deal at the time and I used to go to multiple stores to try to find some quirky horror and sci-fi flicks. Often times they'd have multiple copies and you'd have to search through all of them to get one that wasn't overly scratched. This was before Big Lots started carrying $3 dvds, which was among the golden eras of dvd collecting.

As for renting from their stores, I was never a big fan since I grew up in a town with great mom and pop stores. They were the kind of places where you could sit and chat with the staff who were generally pretty enthusiastic about movies as well. And those places always seemed to have a lot of campy catalog and obscure b-movies. Many of my favorites were catalog titles rented from the $0.99 section. The stores just had a great atmosphere and seemed like passion projects just as much as businesses.

[silentbob]

I too miss both BlockBuster and Jumbo Video. I didn’t rent a single movie from BlockBuster for roughly 7 years straight, but I bought a tone of their used dvds and blue rays near the end. Jumbo Video was amazing back in the vhs age, because my local shop 2-3 times. Year would do a weekend sale on used movies. My mother and I would get up early and wait outside for them to open and buy sometimes 30-60 movies for ourselves and gifts for family/friends. Got a huge chunk of them for $3.50 each and would bring them home with a box of them plastic cases that they were rented in. We would take the regular cases and cut the sides and slip them into the plastic rental cases for safer keeping. Ah, the good old days